Thursday

Well it was once again another beautiful morning with cool temps in the 60's and a nice breeze with bright blue skies. We did our quiet times then had oatmeal with fruit for breakfast before getting ready to set out on our trip to the Boone and Blowing Rock area. Joe and Helen(mountain mom) came by around 9 AM then we set off down the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We saw a beautiful 4-6 point buck with mossy horns(they are shedding)just standing by the roadway and it continued to browse along the edge of the road as we slowed down. I wish now we had stopped and taken a picture of him. A little later we saw a large turkey with several diddles(baby chicks) just walking down the parkway as well and they continued on the road as we passed by. We approached the Glendale Springs area where there is a local trading post and noticed the parking lot was covered in fresh leaves and just below there we actually saw what we thought was snow along side the road. Well there was much discussion about the probability of what this was so I turned around and we headed back and sure enough it turned out to be a several piles of hail on the side of the road. Nancy took a picture and I made a snow ball with temp's in the low 70's by now and on this day in August. Well that led to a good discussion and we later learned a tremendous hail storm last night struck the area and caused all the leaves to be knocked onto the parking lot of the trading post.

We headed into Boone and made our first stop at the old Mast General Store that was built back in the 1800's. This place has everything from; cured meats, a post office, toys, dishes, clothes and you name it. I found a new bicycle horn for my golf cart. We perused the 2 floors of goodies and several out buildings then headed just a short distance away to the annex where they sell over 650 different kinds of candy; most of which are the old fashion type you seldom see in stores today. We purchased over 3 pounds of different varieties of candy as well as did Joe and Helen.

We headed south towards Blowing Rock which is a quaint upscale small community with lots of shops and restaurants. We liked one in particular named the Storey Street Grille which is a small upscale bistro. We ate outside on their covered deck and one of their specialties is their meat loaf dinner. Its made with a Cheer wine barbecue sauce and its out of this world along with smashed red spuds and fried okra. We all had the same except Nancy who substituted green beans for the okra. Wow was that ever a great meal and the portions were awesome as well. Definitely a splendid place to dine. Afterwards we drove around the small town and found some very beautiful homes and real estate; much of what is in the 7 figure category. It is a neat small town and fun to visit.

We headed back to Boone and stopped at the super Wal-mart for goodies we will need this next week. Boone is a busy place as well with the Appalachian State University situated in the city. We decided after our grocery shopping to head back up the Parkway to home as it takes close to 2 hours for the drive. We made several stops so Nancy could take some breath taking view photos. It was close to 4:30 when we headed into our drive. Wow where did the day go??? LATER